Musings on the War of Marineford
by HeartFout
Summary: Various character's views on what happened in the great war. 19. Rayleigh 20. Robin 21. Mihawk 22. Boa 23. Coby 24. Shanks 25. Ivankov 26. Oars Jr 27. Shiki 28. Benn 29. Helmeppo (again)
1. Kizaru: Satisfaction

**Warning: Marineford war spoilers.**

**Satisfaction.**

Kizaru didn't feel much. His life had been spent in a haze, his spacey, laid back nature preventing anger, fear, love, lust...almost all emotions. He didn't know what it felt like to leap for joy, only a vague feeling that could, in theory, be the beginnings of happiness. He had never cried over a death, or even cared that it occurred. Occasionally he may feel be slightly surprised, like when he discovered Benn Beckman had sneaked up on him and had drawn a bead on his head, but that was simply his slow reaction time assessing the situation.

He did however, feel and love satisfaction. Satisfaction made him feel good. Satisfaction made him feel satisfied, a tautology that worked for him. And the best way for him to feel satisfied was to catch vermin. Rats were good: he hunted rats a lot. And pigeons: often he went down to the park and lasered pigeons from a tree branch. But pirates were his favourite. Pirates had to die. So he killed them, or caught them and gave them to Impel Down, to kill or torture them until they were functionally dead as they saw fit. Even watching others kill pirates was satisfying to him.

He felt the biggest twinge of satisfaction in a while when he saw the death of Portugas D. Ace, but that was nothing compared to when he watched the death of Edward Newgate. His entire body, entire self felt satisfaction, even downright happiness, when he saw the pirate stop moving. When he saw the blades and bullets had finally struck their mark, unlike the other hundreds of attacks aimed at the man. When Whitebeard died, Kizaru gave a real laugh, and almost danced, if he could be bothered.

But, he decided, that satisfaction would be absolutely nothing, nothing, compared to capturing the Blackbeard pirates. So, he decided, that was his new mission.

And when that was done, maybe Monkey D. Luffy would be the pirate king. And then Kizaru would take him down too.

And then, maybe, he'd be fully satisfied.

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**AN: Just a little thing that popped into my head when reading through the chapters with Kizaru again is that he barely ever shows emotion outside his `Ooooooooh` state. The closest I can see is when he gets a bit more serious fighting Rayleigh, but even then he's pretty spacey. So yeah.**

**I used the word `satisfaction` to much here methinks. But it was fun to write, and I kinda like it. Any feedback?**


	2. Sengoku: Defeat

**Defeat.**

Who won the war of Marineford? Anyone will tell you it was a complete victory of the world government. The son of Gol D. Roger was dead, and Whitebeard was dead. Apart from structural damage to Marineford, the marine's lost little. Anyone would tell you it was a complete victory for the world government. Anyone.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku disagreed. Fleet Admiral Sengoku thought that if anyone had won, it was the Blackbeard pirates, and them alone. Impel Down had all but fallen, with the worst criminals in the world running loose once more. The battle had more of a toll on the marine's army than they admitted officially, with at least half the vice admirals dead or in no condition to fight. Furthermore, the preparations for the war meant pulling out of dozens of garrisons across the oceans, an open invitation for pirates and warlords throughout the four blues to make their move. That much was obvious. But the consequences of the war went deeper than that.

The New World was in turmoil. Lands previously protected by the threat of Whitebeard were now embroiled in conflict. Pirates such as Brownbeard, John D'arc and Camilla Snatch were making their move, seizing villages and islands for themselves. The group of the Shichibukai was shattered, Moria was ordered to be executed, Blackbeard and Jinbei had turned traitor and Hancock was doing hell knows what. The only ones they had left were Mihawk (Who couldn't be trusted really anyway), Doflamingo (Even more so), and Kuma, who had lost all freewill.

But the worst thing was the victory of the Blackbeard pirates. Their numbers had swelled, to include individuals that previously took the power of CP9 or/and Admirals to bring down. (He remembered defeating San Juan Wolf himself, in a one on one fight that took three days and demolished four mountains). CP9 was another point, although not to do with the war. An individual like Rob Lucci roaming around would be problematic enough without everything else. And then there was the captain. Blackbeard had obtained the power of two devil fruits. Was it the power of the Yami Yami no mi? Had Vegapunk shared some secret with him that allowed Blackbeard to do this?

Either way, a man capable of scarring Red Haired Shanks by himself was roaming the seas with the power of two of the strongest devil fruits and a crew capable of destroying entire nations.

And as news flooded in of the chaos that was exploding across the world (Revolutionaries in South Blue! Blackbeard attacked the New World country of...! War in West Blue!), and of exactly how much damage the Marine army had sustained, and of new pirates springing up, looking for One Piece, Sengoku put his head in his hands and conceded his complete, utter, total defeat.

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**AN: Satisfaction was so fun, I decided to do another one. Again, feedback and pointing out any errors would be nice.**

**I wasn't quite as pleased with this one, but I can't quite work out why...**


	3. Jinbei: To Remember

**To remember.**

When was the last time Jinbei had felt pain like this? He wasn't sure. Certainly not when going through the cleansing ritual in Impel Down, certainly not when fighting his way out. Maybe earlier, when fighting Ace...no, that was exhaustion at fighting for three days without food. When was the last time he had actually passed out from the pain?

He couldn't remember. Much like he couldn't remember how he got on board a submarine, or how they got away from Marineford. Even his last memory before the blackout was blurry, something about thanking a big nose. Why would he thank a big nose? (The link to Buggy hadn't quite made itself yet). Before that, only certain moments stood out. Punching Moria was one. The rest was a jumble of injured marines and dying pirates, of tears for comrades and the overall, resounding, painful cry to keep on, keep on killing. He was glad he didn't not remember those moments clearly.

But he did remember the worst of the war. A fist through Ace's stomach. That was horrible, so, so horrible. Ace was a dear friend, someone who he trusted, even if they had, on several occasions, done their level best to kill each other. And Whitebeard's death. The man who protected his island, who had drank with him, who had stood in front of the world and made it shake and tremble was dead. Dead by the hands of fools who had no idea what Whitebeard was to the world. To his crew. Even to him.

And as Jinbei watched Luffy rampage through Amazon Lily, he wanted more than anything to join him. He wanted to take his memories out and smash them on the ground, crushing them like the boulders and trees the rubber man attacked. He wanted to, but he knew he couldn't. But as he confirmed the death of Portugas D. Ace to his brother, he wished, oh how he wished that he could.


	4. Garp: Patience

**Patience**

It was not a word associated commonly with Monkey D. Garp. He did not sit and wait. He rarely even bothered walking around to doors if the wall could be broken down. On board ship, he'd be pacing up and down, performing exercises to keep up his superhuman strength and generally make a nuisance of himself (Not that any of his subordinates would admit it). Admittedly, this was during the time he wasn't asleep on his feet, but even so, he can hardly be called patient.

But on that day, beneath the hand of Sengoku holding him down, Garp swore to be patient. He couldn't kill Sakurazaki. Not yet. He'd have to wait, wait until they were both in some far flung war (Which could take a while if he didn't pull some strings with Sengoku: Akainu's power and disregard for anything in the way of a goal made him more of a danger to civilians than most pirates, so he was rarely sent on missions). Then, when there were few eyewitnesses, or maybe when he could pass it off as an enemy attack, he would strike. How? He didn't know yet. Maybe he would strike with a piece of seastone around his fist. Or maybe he would smash the land they were standing on and send them both tumbling into the sea.

He didn't know how, and he didn't know where, and he didn't know when. All that he knew was that Akainu was going to die by his hands. And so he waited. He waited and waited.

Garp was capable of patience. Ace's memory demanded it.


	5. Akainu: Judgement

**Judgement**

Why did the Fleet Admiral pull them out? Akainu didn't understand. Why did Red Hair appear out of nowhere? Akainu didn't know. Why was everyone, even his former foe Crocodile, protecting Strawhat Luffy? Akainu didn't understand, know or care. Akainu didn't care about a lot of things. Civilians? Potential thieves and rogues. Marines? Anyone of them could betray the organisation. Betray him. Akainu swore to use his powers to defend justice, punish the evil and protect the innocent, but he also thought there were no innocents, and that he was justice, so he defended himself, punished all and protected none.

When he saw one of the vice admirals under his command fall, he cursed the man's failure and left him for dead. When a lowly marine, ranked not even captain, dared to order him to stop, he decided to kill him. When a pirate, a scum of the high seas, leapt in his way to `protect` his younger `brother` (The words protect and brother now meant little to Akainu), he killed him without hesitation.

Because Akainu was justice, and so he was the only one capable of judging those he encountered. And Akainu judged them all guilty, and so he decided they would all die. Each and every one of them.

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**AN: Not quite as happy with this one as with the others, mainly because Akainu's defining character trait is damnright psyco-ness, which is a bugger to write. But I think I did okay.**

**I've also noticed that the chapters are getting shorter as I go. This one was only 200 words, compared to `defeat` which was 500 words. Blegh.**

**Next up: Kuma.**


	6. Kuma: Concern

**Concern**

Kuma was rarely appalled by battles. But even he may be appalled by the battle of Marineford. The stench of death on both sides hung in the air, the stability of the world being damaged with every swing of a sword, every bullet, every earthquake that occurred during the battle. Pirates and marines, both convinced they were in the right and their foes were the immoral bastards, swung at each other in a war over some stupid, stupid kid who got way other his head when trying to battle Blackbeard.

Blackbeard. The very name concerned Kuma. He was not a man to be trusted (His past actions had made that clear), yet the world government had taken him in and given him even more power than before. Blackbeard was a man who regarded the stability of the world, the future of the world, as a thing for him to play with. He claimed that it was for fate to play with, but by fate he meant himself. Even his crewmates were nothing more than pawns to shunt around on a bizarre chessboard, just things Blackbeard had to do to reach his goal. A new world. Despite Kuma's hatred of the government, and of himself for following their orders (Although with the hold they had on him, what else could he do?), he knew that even they, with the Buster Call and the Tenryuubito, where better than the reign Blackbeard was trying to create.

Blackbeard's world would be built on Blackbeard's idea of justice. And Blackbeard just wouldn't care. He would probably go on a reign of terror, and he wouldn't stop others doing so themselves unless they bothered him.

Kuma was concerned. But Kuma was now dead, and PX-0 only obeyed.


	7. Moria: Fear

F**ear**

"A true pirate shouldn't fear death" was what Moria had said to Monkey D. Luffy all that time ago upon Thriller Bark on top of the comatose Oars. At the time, he believed it.

Then the bastard kid had defeated him, crushing him under his own mansion mast. Since that occurred, Moria had felt something welling up inside him. What was it? He didn't know.

It grew larger when he saw the ship fall from the sky. It grew larger still when his limited number of zombies was wiped out in an instant by Jinbei. When he learnt that Strawhat was the son of Dragon, his throat began to choke up. When he was defeated by Jinbei, he nearly threw up under the pressure of this strange feeling. What the hell was it? What? What?

It subsided some when he watched Whitebeard being stabbed by his comrade. It subsided slightly more when Whitebeard died, only to erupt up again when he saw the arrival of Red Hair blocking Akainu's attack. The levels of power was simple: Jinbei and Strawhat had both defeated him, and now both were lying unconscious at the hands of the red admiral, who in turn had been blocked with ease by Red Hair. For the first time he looked around, conscious of how many individuals there were here stronger than him. The feeling exploded into his mind once more.

As Moria fell in front of Doflamingo, he put a name to the feeling.

"A true pirate shouldn't feel fear."

But Moria was no longer a real pirate. He was a dog of the government, with only the illusion of freedom to do as he pleased.

As Moria fell in front of Doflamingo, he feared his oncoming death. He feared it.

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**AN:Thanks for all the reviews. Note:I may do Doflamingo if I can think of a good situation for him. I don't really know much about his character other than he is an immoral insane bastard, so it could take a while...**


	8. Smoker: Justice

**Justice**

Smoker had been losing faith in the marine's idea of justice ever since the Alabasta incident. If the marines were just, Crocodile's plans wouldn't have to be foiled by pirates. The marine's would not turn a blind eye towards a plot to destabilise an entire nation by one of their own operatives. They would obliterate Baroque Works the moment it came up, the full force of an admiral crushing Crocodile in a day.

Instead, some crazy, lucky guy from East Blue saved the country when he, Smoker, could not. Smoker's pride screamed, but Smoker himself thought.

When he arrived at Water Seven and began making enquires about Monkey D. Luffy, he found himself faced with a vast army of angry shipwrights and civilians, shouting about how the crew had saved the mayor and the city. Talking with Iceburg, he discovered the truth of CP9, and his sense of justice wondered why it took pirates to stop the world government destabilising yet another island.

Then came the war, and as he listened to the cries of the dying marines, and the answering refusals to help, and to the pirates crying for their master, and the groans as they attempted to save their wounded, even as the bullets began flying and the swords came slashing down upon them. And he began to wonder whether the marines could be just towards each other, yet alone the entire world.

And then when Shanks arrived, saving the life of an enemy to stop this great, bloody battle, Smoker wondered how an organisation devoted to justice was scrambling to reach the moral high ground of a damn pirate. And he thought about his own justice, and how that was more in the lines of the pirates before him than the marines around him.

But Smoker wasn't a pirate. And just because some pirates were capable of good, doesn't mean they should all be let off, any more than the behaviour of some marines should damn the whole organisation. So Smoker planned. He was going to stand on top of the marines one day. And when he did, when Fleet Admiral Smoker gave the orders, justice would be restored to the world.


	9. Magellan: Planning

**Planning**

Magdellan heard most of the information on the war after it had left the walls of the prison lying semiconscious on an infirmary bed, but he still took in everything and noted it carefully in his mind. Then, he began to plan.

With no living prisoners left within the walls of Impel Down, the idea of having a guard became, frankly, moot. So, what to do?

The answer was, of course, to go out and recapture them. All of them. That included the escaped Shichibukai, Crocodile and Jinbei. That included the crowd of the lower level prisoners, led by that idiot with the swollen nose. That included every last single one of the damn level 6 prisoners, up to and including that blasted Shiryuu and the rest of those bastards.

Could he do it? Possibly. He couldn't use his normal methods though. This was no job for charging in with the Hydra swirling around him. No. He would have to be cunning. All pirates, no matter how strong, had to eat, correct?

There was his opening. But to get at their food, he had to get at their trust. Calling attention to himself would be crazy and dangerous. So his first step would be to disappear. To this end, he called a meeting with Sengoku. And so, twenty days after the battle of Marineford, and after the first outbreak of the war, the destruction of Impel Down, it was announced that the chief warden had died from his injuries, and would be given a full soldiers burial, with the fleet admiral himself performing the burial rites.

Magdellan did not watch `his` funeral. An Impel Down prisoner, killed during the battle, who was about the same size and weight as him was shoved unceremoniously into a coffin by Sengoku, who then organised a massive, televised funeral, for all those lost in the war, with special focus on the death of the brave Impel Down warden. Magdellan found it funny that his name was marking the body of a pirate, but he couldn't complain, since it was his idea anyway.

And so Magdellan set off. And soon? Who knows? May a large bartender named Marvin or Mike or some other name would arrive at some island, somewhere, just as a major pirate descended. And who knows, maybe Marvin would disappear and Mike will appear at a different island, with dyed hair, and would suddenly leave just as a major poisoning case occurred to do with the dreadful pirate who may be on the island.

No matter what happens, Magdellan is going to achieve his goal. And it will go all according to plan.

**AN: Magdellan needs more love.**

**I think of the Impel Down arc as the first true battle of the war, since if we say the objective of the war was to rescue Ace, then the break in of Luffy was the first act of the war on the pirates side. Also, the Blackbeard pirates, major forces at the end of the war, increase their numbers while going through Impel Down. So yeah, I think that although Magdellan can't muse on the Marineford battle, he can muse on the war and his own failure quite easily.**


	10. Doflamingo: Intelligence

**Intelligence.**

Laughing as he bounced among the ruins of Marineford, Doflamingo glanced at the wounded below him and laughed even more. He perched on the top of a flagpole, sill miraculously standing upright despite the damage to the island, and sat and thought.

Whitebeard was dead. That was good. That old relic wouldn't have survived the new age. Neither would that idiot Firefist. Honestly, what was he thinking, going off after Blackbeard like that? Stupid people will not survive the new age, and Ace's actions were clearly stupid.

Unlike, maybe, his brother. Doflamingo liked the strawhat kid. He too was stupid, the fact that he invaded Impel Down was proof of that. But he doubted he was completely stupid. A stupid rubber man wouldn't be able to defeat someone like Crocodile, or fight on par with Rob Lucci, or invade Impel Down.

Yes. Strawhat Luffy was a particularly dangerous foe to the New World. Not him, by himself. By himself he was just a suicidal madman, like his brother and his father. But as Mihawk said, people seemed to like the strawhat. People gathered around him, even the likes of Jinbei and Crocodile, even Boa Hancock, a womam frostier than Aojiki. This was what made him so dangerous. You cannot hope to fight a man of his strength when half your army suddenly deserts you and starts clearing a path for him. Still, making people doing what they didn't want to was a particular strength of his.

Blackbeard? Smart man. Using the world government just to break into Impel Down and increase his forces? Crazy, but smart. Stealing the devil fruit power of a dead man? Crazy, damn near impossible, but smart. Staying out of a battle that shook the world until he could make his move safely? Very smart. Although mocking Whitebeard before ensuring he couldn't, say, cut you down with his massive blade was kind of stupid.

Would any of them survive into the coming new age? Doflamingo didn't know, but it would be fun to find out.


	11. Whitebeard: Regrets

**Regrets.**

Whitebeard was finding it hard to think. The fact that he was thinking was nothing short of a miracle, with half of his skull and brain ripped away, but even he was beginning to give into biology. Even if he did wipe out the Blackbeard pirates, he probably wouldn't survive long at this rate. But that was fine. That was what he predicted would happen anyway. He had no regrets about that.

That's not to say he didn't have any regrets though. He regretted letting Blackbeard in the crew for one thing. If he hadn't, then this entire situation would have probably not happened at all. Probably, although Blackbeard was the kind of unpredictable man who may have ended up doing it anyway.

He regretted letting Ace go after him. He should have discreetly asked Garp to deal with him, or else simply let him go until he blundered onto the marine's radar then sat back and watch as the world government declared war on him. But it was too late for that now, and he wasn't even sure that he could stop Ace from doing it anyway.

He was annoyed with himself for creating those two tsunamis. He had known that Aojiki would freeze them, of course. In fact, he had been counting on it. He wasn't damn foolish enough to wipe out his entire army with his own bloody attack, but he was foolish enough to help create two massive ice walls to block his own escape. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He had plenty of regrets throughout his long life. But his biggest regret was his last. He regretted that Blackbeard was standing before him alive. He lashed out, striking him with his bisento, and grinned one last time as the man fell back, blood streaming from the wound.

"Kill him!" Came the traitor's order to his crew, and Whitebeard felt swords and bullets slamming into his body for the last time.

He regretted that he could no longer move his body. He…regretted…


	12. Buggy: Questions

**Questions**

What the fuck was Buggy doing in this damn flashy place? Why were all these damn prisoners, most of whom Buggy would run away from if they came into a bar, following him? Why did the world government declare him on the level of one of the four emperors of the new world? Why was all of this stuff happening to him?

How the heck was a logia type user dead due to being punched in the stomach? How the hell was Whitebeard dead? How the flashiness did Blackbeard steal his devil fruit power? Why did Buggy think he had any chance of taking that monster's head? Why did his tears of cowardice as he tried desperately to run away result in the aforementioned damn prisoners following him? Why was he dodging large fists of lava? Why did a flying fishman hit him? Why was Strawhat unconscious in his arms?

How the hell did a submarine get here? How did the guy know Strawhat? Who was that massive giant who towered over the Marine HQ? How did he fit in Impel Down? Why did all of Blackbeard's crew seem to be ugly as hell? How did that flashy bastard Shanks get here? Why did Shanks come here? How did Shanks become one of the four emperors? Why did Sengoku agree to stop the war? Why was Hancock fussing over Strawhat? Why not him, damnit!

How did he survive the battle? How did he and his `crew` escape on a boat (who it belonged to originally, Buggy didn't know). What on earth was a terrified, wanted man labelled as being a ringleader of a plot he only joined in to escape, and being labelled as an almighty menace simply because he was once on the crew of the Pirate King but left before they became famous to do?

The weight of all these questions drove Buggy to tears, hiding in the crow's nest from the rest of the criminals who he was sure would kill him the moment they saw weakness.

Meanwhile, the newly created crew of legends, lead by the great Buggy, comrade to the Pirate King and rival to both Strawhat Luffy and Red Haired Shanks, looked up in reverence at their captain, who, even while mourning for his dead foes, still volunteered to keep first watch, and swore that no matter what happened, they would follow him to the ends of the Earth.

Buggy just sat there and cried and wondered how the hell he could get back to East Blue.


	13. Luffy: The World is not hell

**The World isn't Hell.**

One the first day after Luffy awoke from his wounds on Amazon Lily, he snapped. Knocking Bebo, who was supposed to be looking after him, flying, he fled into the forest, smashing trees and rocks before him. Tears ran down his face, and not even the presence of Jinbei could calm him down.

On the second day, Luffy's mind slowly began working again. It began slowly, even for its normal state, with memories of him and Ace as children, in the Gray Terminal under the charge of Dadan, with Sabo, the madness in their actions as they charged at pirates armed with swords and guns with only a stick each and an insane glimmer in their eyes. As the good times slowly forced themselves back into the sections of his mind marked memories, he sank to his knees and concluded that this was hell. He looked up from his position on a shattered rock, and came face to face with Usopp.

He fell back in shock, staring at the apparition before him. He reached out to touch the face of his friend, but before his hands could reach it, Usopp screamed at him.

"Luffy! What are you doing! This isn't like you!" Luffy startled back. "Why are you standing there like you're about to die? Even though it's been blackened by explosions, we can still see the sky! We can still see the sea! It ain't like its hell here you bastard!"

"I'm not going to die, Usopp! What the hell are you talking about?" Shouted Luffy, tears and snot dribbling down his face. His hands completed their attempted movement earlier, and grabbed hold of the boy's long nose. His hands touched wood. Panicking, he grabbed at Usopp's cheeks, only to find that it was the bark of a tree. One by one, Usopp's features blurred a series of rings and knots surrounding a stick growing out of the trunk, and Luffy fell over, crying once again, this time even more so, for the lost crew and the dead brother.

On the third day, Luffy's brain finally shunted the last words of his brother into position. "I have just one regret...that I won't see your dream come true. But I know you'll do it!"

He looked around, at the damage he had wrought to the island in his rampage.

Was this a path leading to his dream?

His dream was to be the pirate king.

The pirate king needed his crew to be it.

He didn't have his crew here.

Ace told him to live his dream.

His dream needed his crew.

So Ace told him to go and get his crew.

And Luffy obeyed his brother.

On the fourth day, Iva sent a message to Amazon Lily that one of Luffy's crew was on his (or her) island. When Hancock told him about this, he nodded, and then asked if she could give him a boat.

As he got back on the Kuja pirate boat, surrounded by the Amazon warriors of the island, he stopped crying.

He didn't quite expect Sanji to have been turned into an openly lesbian woman, and was even more surprised that s/he actually asked Iva to do it to him/her, but at least he had a crew member back, and he was on an adventure again.

The world definitely wasn't hell, even if Ace wasn't there.

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**AN: I know this isn't technically looking at the war, but hey, Ace's death was part of the war, wasn't it? Not the most important part (That came after), but still pretty important and the most important part for Luffy, so he would focus on it more than the other bits. But then he also has to find his crew, so....this is the result.**

**And that thing with Sanji becoming a woman? That is my offical prediction. Sanji is going to be turned into a woman, probably a lesbian. Exactly how, or why, Oda only knows, but I think he shall.**

**At the very least, he'll be a crossdresser next time we see him properly (heck, he already is), but I'm still sticking to the first idea.**


	14. Mr 3: Changed Character

**Changed Character.**

_I must be crazy._

Was the thought running through Mr 3's head as he pulled a dead (or unconscious, difficult to decipher which) marine's coat off of the body and swung it over his shoulders.

_Absolutely, downright, clinically insane._

He ran up through the ranks of marines backwards, trading blows with random pirates in a deceptive retreat towards the platform. When he reached the main base of Marineford, he disappeared into the shadows of the back alleys, dodging between running marines and pieces of debris.

_Damn suicidal bastard of a me!_

After a while, he finally reached the area by the scaffold. Seizing his chance _Why the hell am I doing this?_ when one of Whitebeard's earthquakes knocked an executioner off of the platform, he climbed up and posed as his replacement, hoping that Sengoku and Garp didn't recognise his trembling face as one of the Impel Down escapees.

_What the..._

Luffy's `haki` sent him face first onto the platform floor, and when he finally came to, it was to the sight of Sengoku in Buddha form, towering over both of them. Trying to save his own life, and that of Luffy and Ace, he thrust the best candle wall he could do up in front of the descending fist.

_Why am I here?_

He honestly didn't have a clue what he was doing or why until he saw Strawhat's face. Then he saw the determination of someone wanting to save someone special to him, and he realised that he, fool he was, was doing the exact same thing, saving someone he didn't even know for the sake of a crazy friend.

If he wasn't under fire in the middle of the biggest war of the age, he'd had sunk to his knees with laughter. He, a man who prided himself on his jaded, villainous outlook on life, was risking his life for someone like Bon Clay. Not even for him, but for the memory of him. Since he was in a war, he didn't actually do that, instead settling for desperately trying to stay alive, but even while doing so, he thought to himself _What next? Will I end up an insane adventurous pirate like these two? Risking his life with a small group of companions I can trust at my side?_

_Actually, that doesn't sound that bad...what have I got to lose?_

Reality quickly answered that by doing its level best to kill him, but the beginning of an idea was there, and maybe, one day, it would spread to his entire being.

Or he might die before it happened. About the same chances of either occurring.

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**AN: This one was great fun to write. I like to imagine Mr 3, leading a crew of escaped slave to greatness (He'd be great at it, since he can unlock them so easily)**

**Incidentally, this marks the first time italics have raised their slopey head in this fic (I think...correct me if I'm wrong). I quite like this way of communicating thoughts. Feedback on it is welcomed.**

**I'm trying to get more fics with the character actually doing things, rather than just remembering them.**


	15. Helmeppo: The Winning Side

**The Winning Side**

Helmeppo wasn't really used to being on the winning side. Sure, his father kept everyone in line when fighting...although dad didn't actually allow him to fight there, so he wasn't really on any side at all, just a really well defended bystander. Garp had a much more hands on approach, seeing as he beat up both Helmeppo and Coby as a basic daily warm up, but here the problem was more that he was too efficient in removing foes. Garp against a single pirate crew was generally a horrific mismatch, so much so that the vice admiral sometimes fought with one hand behind his back, just to give them a sporting chance of simply having horrific injuries, rather than certain death. This meant the other marines on board Garp's ship basically functioned as a massive, heavily armed clean up crew, arresting those pirates that survived the initial assault and fixing up the buildings and or landscape features such as forests and mountains that their leader may have destroyed.

So Helmeppo was more used to being a supporter of the winning side, rather than a fighter.

But what exactly is a supporter to do when one of the top fighters decides to kill one of their friends? Helmeppo shook with terror when Akanu began his assault on Coby, even as his leg muscles tightened, preparing for a spring towards the lava man. Tears of fear rolled down his eyes, even as he prepared to unsheathe his swords in a desperate, crazy attempt to save Coby's life.

He was very glad when Shank's arrived and stopped the blow before his body swung itself into action. If he hadn't arrived, he and Coby would probably both be dead.

Dead by the winning side.


	16. Aojiki: The Bother of Caring

**The Bother of Caring.**

War was a massive bother. Most things were a bother, but war had to be top for Aojiki. It was, perhaps, an unusually sentiment for an admiral, but there it was. War meant killing and fighting, and having to stay awake for more than half an hour without a nap. The first causality of war may be truth, but relaxation came annoyingly high on the list as well.

Weirdly this obsession with resting actually resulted in Aojiki being one of the most active combatants in a warzone, on the grounds that the quicker he turned the enemy into so many ice sculptures, the quicker he could retire to a quiet corner, pull his sleeping mask over his eyes and settle down for a good night's, and maybe part of the next day's as well, sleep. He could just not fight, but that would probably result in him being demoted. Since the lower ranks had less leisure time than the Admirals (Garp was an exception, since he didn't listen long enough to take orders), this was no option. So Aojiki leapt into battle first, freezing two tidal waves and a bay, before preparing to take out the onslaught of pirates.

The battle wore on, becoming more and more tedious as more and more people fell. Some good people, some bad people. Aojiki didn't know which ones where which for most of them, although he saw Vice-Admiral Lowry Bronsted fall, his acid-acid fruit unable to save him. He saw Polly Ester, captain of the Long Chain pirates lying with a hole through her chest from Kizaru's laser. He even saw at least one illicit love affair between a marine and a pirate, which ended quickly when a cannonball took both of their heads off at once mid-kiss. He mourned none of them. Why should he care?

What he didn't expect to see was the escape of Ace. If he had been sucked in to a betting pool before the battle, he would have guessed that the siege wall would have kept the fighting limited to the inner bay, with only Whitebeard's tumours escaping. But, instead, Oars Jr managed to fall on it, and the battle broke into Marineford itself. Even with this, he wouldn't have predicted Ace would have escaped, since it had already been decided that Kizaru would snipe any keys used to unlock the handcuffs. It was probably better that way. Let them fight for a bit, then kill off all hope. If Ace had been executed at the start of the battle, then Whitebeard would have gone on a rampage far worse than the one he did (which accounted for roughly thirty percent of Marine causalities during the battle, but still, it wasn't like Aojiki cared about the fates of the lower ranks), and Aojiki may well have died, which wasn't a situation he wanted to be in. As it was, the plan was to wear them out a bit first, then strike down their goal and let grief and fatigue drown out anger. It usually worked.

After he had heard Ace was Strawhat's brother, he was sure that the boy would turn up. He had a habit of doing that when people close to him were threatened. But what could he do? With no key, even if by some miracle he did make it to the platform, how could he release his brother?

Aojiki was mildy surprised when that wax man managed to undo the handcuffs. It was a very useful Devil Fruit ablitity that allowed you to remove seastone, even if it was just from other people. And then? Ace ruined the admiral's chance of winning (if he had not already done this by not betting) by leaping down in a pillar of fire and proceeding to remove all obstacles in his way. This included Aojki, who made a token effort to stop him but the pair passed him by fairly easily. That was fine. The quicker Ace got on the Whitebeard pirate's ships, the quicker everyone could go home.

One obstacle Ace couldn't remove, it seemed, was large Admirals made out of lava. Aojiki groaned when Ace died. Didn't Akainu know that killing Ace now would send them all into a rage more rabid than a rabid dog with rabies? People in a mad rage became relentlessly hard to kill (although Whitebeard seemed to be in that category anyway), and any battles against them went on for hours and hours and hours, with many deaths on both sides. Not that Aojiki cared, of course, but.

And then the Blackbeard pirates showed up. And then Whitebeard died. That was such an amazing event Aojiki actually woke up. When Aojiki was young, his mother used to invoke Whitebeard's name to get him out of bed. "If you don't come down for breakfast right now, I'll get Whitebeard to come and eat you." Watching him die was a bit like watching the Bogeyman die before your eyes (That had actually happened. Captain Boggeyman was killed when a child put a blanket over his head. Aojiki had promptly chucked him over board in the pirate's confusion) but worse. It sent shivers down the ice man's spine, the way he died so...normally. With pistols and swords. Aojiki had expected the old monster of his childhood to die at the hands of an entire buster call, dragging the fleet down with him in a final act of defience, not like a common soldier from a bullet.

And then the fighting, if you could call it that, continued. It was basically just the pirates fleeing and Akainu chasing, except for the real battle that was occurring between the Fleet Admiral and the Blackbeard pirates. Aojiki fled to the bay, where he could pretend to be cutting off the pirate's escape routes while relaxing in the shade of a damaged ship. Sure, this meant cutting off Jinbei and Strawhat (both pirate's the world could do with around) from escape, but that came second to his need to relax.

When Shank's arrived to end the war, Aojiki, who had calmed down from his earlier shock at Whitebeard's death, breathed a sigh of relief, before hopping on his bicycle. The end of war meant reconstruction. And although war was a massive bother, reconstruction was a good second. Hidden behind the waves, Aojiki set off for islands anew.

Behind his sleeping mask, grief for the deaths on both sides flitted through his mind. As he peddled away, one may have heard him muttering `lazy bastard I am." Cares about no one. Is leaving just because he wants to slack off. It's nothing to do with not wanting to see so many people dead. The most compassionate admiral pedalled across the sea, telling himself he was the worst of the lot, and that he didn't care about what had happened that day.

He didn't really believe himself. What a bother.


	17. Ace: Past

**Past.**

He did not know why they were waiting for so long. If one is captured by pirates, they either kill you or let you live. They don't give you this agonising time waiting for the blade to fall. Ace wasn't sure which was worse. Pirates or marines? For a dead man, the choice should be , strangely enough, it was. Did he make the right choice, refusing to follow Garp as a marine? He didn't know. Maybe `Firefist Ace` would be down there now. Heck, maybe he'd be one of the three admirals sitting in front of the execution platform, while some other poor sod, maybe Marco or someone else, was shivering up here, wrapped in seastone chains next to Sengoku. But that didn't matter now. When time moves, you must move with it, and what has been done has been done, and always will be done, no matter how much we cry and shake our heads. Ace thought he had grown beyond that now, the childish lashing out at the past, the rage of those he could not look to the future.

Oars fell. He fell far. And now all the anger that Ace had shut away burst out, like a ship crashing against the rocks, releasing all its cargo to stormy waters. When those who were dying for him where just tiny little specks, even Whitebeard fading due to the height and distance between them, he could pretend they were not there. Pretend they were all out at sea, drinking and singing. Pretend he wasn't crying. But you couldn't do that when the one dying is standing level with you. The warlords killed him as if he was nothing more than a mere ant, to step on and discard. The past, which he swore to forget, welled up inside him once again. His great strawhat stayed intact, but what was the point in a hat with a dead owner?

The battle continued onwards and upwards, the pirates making slow but steady progress up the bay. The war was insane. Absolutely insane. Men were sent flying through the air, and pirates and marines faced each other down in duels which would be worldwide news if they occurred normally, but where now simply part and parcel of the battle. Battles could not be removed, wiped from existence. Whitebeard being stabbed, Luffy's arrival, all the events in this battle were now fixed by their very existence, words carved in stone that would never fade, from now until the end of time.

All of these dark thoughts were suddenly driven from his mind when he was freed. Suddenly, in the midst of explosions and fire and screams, he could move. He could escape. That was what Whitebeard wanted him to do. It was an order from his captain. So he and Luffy escaped, charging through the massed ranks of marines. He was going to escape. He was going to escape. He was going to fufill his orders.

But Akainu got in his way, and he insulted Whitebeard, and Ace's blood raised up as hot as the fire that made up his body. But his foe was hotter, far hotter, and Ace was burned. He was burned. He was...burnt.

And so the past swept over Ace, claiming him for its own. He could not smile, or sing, or drink or breathe or eat or anything. He could not dream. He died, and there can be no changing that.

* * *

**AN: Just a quick one in the middle of the exam season. Only three more to go! Is very good.**

**I'm actually annoyed about this one, because I think it's better than the one for Whitebeard, which is annoying, because his death was much more emotional for me than Ace. Ace it was `Oh no, Ace...` For Whitebeard it was `FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...WHITEBEARD! NO!` knida stuff. I mean, I know Ace is about 90 times more popular, even showing up where he has no right to in fanfics just because of the author, but Whitebeard was awesome. And so I may do a Whitebeard part 2 later on.**


	18. Blackbeard: Doesn't think

**Doesn't Think.**

Blackbeard was going to get himself killed, he knew it. Sure, his plan ran rings around both the world government and the Whitebeard crew, but that was just because it was an overwhelmingly stupid plan that everyone was too shocked that it actually worked to counter it.

The entire time, he'd been running on a mixture of overconfidence, brute strength, and blind luck. If Thatch had killed him when he grabbed the devil fruit, his plan would have ended as soon as it began. If Ace hadn't been a damn fool and gone after him by himself, then in all likelihood Blackbeard would have wandering the seas looking for someone strong enough that the World Government would make him a warlord after defeating them, not daring to go back into the New World for fear of taking an earthquake to the chest. And what if Ace had proven too much for him? Death by fire is a nasty death.

Still, by far the greatest risk was breaking into Impel Down. If Shiryuu hadn't arrived just in time with the antidote...Blackbeard didn't want to think about it. And so he didn't think about. Blackbeard gave no thought to failure, or event temporary defeat. He didn't know if he could steal Whitebeard's powers, but he decided not to plan for it. That would be defeat, and he didn't think about defeat.

He knew that most of his crew were only hanging on out of fear of him or were just biding their time, like he once did himself, to overthrow him and make their own way. But he didn't think about that. He knew that one day, somebody was going to arise and defeat him, simply because he'd recklessly throw himself into a situation he couldn't handle. He put it out of his mind.

He knew he was a damn crazy fool who made stupid plans, chasing after an object he wasn't even sure existed, angering the most powerful people on the planet and escaping only with the skin of his teeth, but he didn't care. He didn't think about that kind of thing. He just laughed his head off, and called for another drink.


	19. Rayleigh: Differences

**Differences**

Roger had no war. Edward did.

Which was odd, Rayleigh thought, considering the personalities of the two men. Roger loved to fight, and he liked things to be as big as possible. Edward was much more quiet and thoughtful. Sure, he could be a monster in battle, or even an argument, but he was also much more willing to solve issues without fighting. This generally consisted of clutching the opponent to his chest and winning over their hearts until they willingly called him `Father`, which all in all is not such a bad way to go about things (although, sometimes it was a heavily wounded body he pressed to his chest).

Would Roger have done that? Maybe. But he was not a man to forgive his enemies in battle, nor was he a man whom enemies would readily forgive, so it would be unlikely that anyone would be joining the crew after changing sides. Roger had his nakama, and they were what counted.

This meant that if there had been a war with the World Government, a proper war, not just Garp jumping onto their ship, carrying two of the marine's finest barrels of beer, drinking them down together with Roger then the two doing their best to kill each other, avoiding the massive shockwaves that were being fired at them by a furious Sengoku who Garp usually dragged along, it would just be Roger's crew in the battle. There would no grand allegiance of crews from all over the New World, no mad men jumping to death for a man they probably didn't even know that well. It would be an entirely different war altogether.

The first mate in Rayleigh proudly said `It'd be different because Roger would win`. But the old man in him, older and wiser, simply sighed and shook his head. They might have done, with a bit of luck. But it was doubtful. They just didn't have the man power needed. Most of the crew would have been cut down before the siege wall even raised, maybe only himself and the captain would be able to make it to the higher ranks. And then what? Go down in a blaze of glory, taking as many as they could with them? How would that save their crewmate from the executioners' blades? It wouldn't. And since that was their objective in the first place, it would likely end with a complete defeat for the crew.

Roger had no war. Edward did. And Rayleigh thought this was a good thing too, since Edward was far better at managing the war than Roger could have been. It was with this thought he turned away from the great screen in the main bit of the grove. He had thought earlier that Roger would have probably stolen Buggy's den den mushi and would have narrating it as he charged among the ranks, unlike Edward, who seemed not to give a damn. Preparing for the future, he got on a boat and sailed away, to the island where Luffy, hopefully, awaited, unlike the two dead giants Rayleigh left behind.

Although, the first mate in him still said, with a smile, that Roger wouldn't have been dumb enough to let one of his crew get captured in the first place.

**

* * *

**

AN: Firstly...I have finished my examinations! Yahoo! Yay! All that good stuff! This means hopefully I can update this more often now.

**Secondly, you may have noticed that I have `reset` the description bar, starting now with this one and moving on from there. That's simply because I ran out of space in it to mark new ones.**

**Thirdly, I may do some rewrites, simply because I have thought of better ones for some characters. These include Luffy, Jinbei (his angst smashing powers must have a tribute made for them!), Kuma (although I may say that his was a PX-01 fic, and that this is an actual Kuma one) and the man himself, Edward `Whitebeard` Newgate.**

**Fourthly, I hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as I have writing them. But please, if there's any mistakes you can point out, or bits that you think could be worded better, please point them out. It'll hopefully help me to improve, which gets you better writing, so it's allllllll good. **


	20. Robin: The Continuing Age

**The Continuing Age.**

Exactly when ages begin and end is a difficult thing to determine. When did the Great Age of piracy begin?

It is often agreed that it started when Gol D. Roger shouted his last words to the world, but was this merely a catalyst for a social change that was already occurring? Do we include the lull in piracy activities, a period known as the `Grand Age of Ship Building`, when gangs of would be buccaneers sat around waiting for a vessel to attempt to terrorise the high seas, which lasted for around three years after the death of the Pirate King?

The main trouble with defining `ages` is that there are many many people living at the same time, and for each of these people. Sure, maybe it was Whitebeard's age, and his had ended. But it was also Shank's age, and the World Governments age. It was Luffy's age as well. Robin knew this, and she knew that none of these ages had yet ended.

Robin had watched the war. She had seen the deaths of Ace and Whitebeard sitting next to a commander of the revolutionary army. They were still here. Their age hadn't ended. The world was said to be in termiol, but that was the default state of the world anyway. The world moved quickly and chaotically, for seemingly random reasons. As a historian, Robin had to look at these crazy events and make them into some kind of order. That was what she did.

There was a change. But there wasn't enough of a change to say an age had ended.

Her crewmates, Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Franky and Brook were still here, somewhere on this planet spinning itself through time. There was no end of an age for her.

And to her, that was all that mattered.

**AN: Slightly odd one this time, not sure how it turned out. I like it, but I don't know if it'll make sense to someone other than me reading it, so feedback welcomed.**

**I know I probably shouldn't do ones for characters not in the war when I still have a long list of ones that were in it to do, but I kind of haven't thought of good ones for them, so...yeah.**


	21. Mihawk: Interesting Sights

**Interesting Sights**

Mihawk was very good at seeing things. It was, after all, the reason he was named `Hawkeyes` by the world government. When he was younger, brasher, more like Rorona Zoro, he found this an insult. What kind of hawk could see the things he could? Heck, he could see and react to bullets coming directly towards him. Hawk's reactions to bullets tended to be limited to `flap flap SQUAWK! Death`. But he was older and calmer now, and such minor nuisances didn't bother him.

He had seen a lot in the battle. This was perfectly normal, as you would have to be a blind fool not to see a lot in a fight to the death between that many people. He had seen Boa Hancock's reaction to the arrival of Monkey D. Luffy; she had blushed and danced around like a schoolgirl, before proceeding to single-handily half the number of pacifistas in service. Love could do scary things to a person, particularly when that person has had most of her qualms about holding back in a fight shattered by years of abuse, and is also able to destroy large stone buildings with one kick. He saw Buggy switching between `brave leader` mode, `terrified coward` mode and in one case `excellent decoy` mode at the drop of a hat. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Aojiki freezing a wounded marine's cuts and ordering another one to take him to the medical room.

Of course, he wasn't just in the battle for sightseeing. He had his own duties to carry out, which mainly consisted of killing everyone in his way. He did quite well, for the most part. Only a few, like the aforementioned Buggy and Monkey D. Luffy got away from him. Overall, it was pretty boring, with only a few duels worth his time. He would have gone after Whitebeard, but he was just the strongest swordsman in the world. As a general rule, swords don't beat earthquakes. Well, there was that time he saved an island by bisecting the fault line and getting the citizens to fill it in with sand so that it stabilised, but Whitebeard was somewhat different to that. One was a force of nature, the other one just the slipping of a tectonic plate. Totally different power levels.

After Whitebeard's death, he regretted this analysis. At the very least, combating the man would have been interesting. It was rare he saw interesting things.

That was what Mihawk had set out for, after all. Not adventure, not comradeship, but to find something interesting. The small rural town he grew up in held little to offer those not interested in pig farming. Most of the young men there took to drink and women, but Mihawk found that it took more beer than his body could take to be able to tell one of the local `seductresses` from a pig after the clothes removal stage of the proceedings that occur when two very drunk people find a soft surface where they are unlikely to be found, and decided to leave. His first boat consisted of three large wooden troughs tied roughly together, and his departing party consisted in the owners of said large troughs chasing after him shouting words that they didn't appear to know the meaning of. However, it is amazing how a slight change in the normal pronunciation of `cabbage` can convey the speaker's desire to impale you with a pitchfork. The stress had to be on the `ca-Baaaaaaagggghhhhh-e` it seemed.

Still, he would say that those cabbage farmers of his youth may well be more intelligent than the marines he fought beside. At least they only reacted to a bad situation, such as having a brat steal their property. The marine's seemed determined to actively make a bad situation worse. One of the most powerful stabilising influences in the new world fights you and loses? If Mihawk had been in charge, which he wouldn't enjoy anyway because he'd have responsibilities, then he would have let the retreating pirates go. The Whitebeard crew were far more effective at protecting civilians than the world government in the New World.

This was a fairly mild act of stupidity compared to their reaction to Blackbeard showing up. None of the admirals went to help in the battle against him, even after he had cemented himself as a major threat by killing the biggest reason that the Whitebeard crew acted as peacekeepers, then taking the man's devil fruit powers as well (which, in itself, was an immensely interesting turn of events). He would have called at least two of them to help, and Garp, and if possible, use the anger from Whitebeard's death to muster people like Marco into helping also. But no. Sengoku carried on battling them by himself (admittedly, this was usually enough to defeat the combined armed forces of several countries, but Blackbeard's crew were a different matter), while the rest of the marines continued to chase down the Whitebeard pirates, which in itself caused the first problem. Sure, the situation was interesting, but it was also really stupid, and in the long term, slightly worrying.

Coby nicely bucked the trend by being interesting and sensible simultaneously. Shouting at Akainu, a man so psychotic he would be in level six of Impel Down if he wasn't a Marine, wasn't that sensible, but the overall message was clear and concise.

Unfortunately, he happened to be in the one situation that `punching your opponent out with a fist of lava` is a valid debate tactic.

Fortunately however, Shanks stepped in. Mihawk liked Shanks. He was surprisingly unpredictable, turning up when you least expect with a jug of beer or rum or whatever alcoholic beverage he had this time. He was also a good sword fighter, although Mihawk would never admit it to his face.

And then the war stopped. Both sides walked away, weary and wounded.

Mihawk wandered off, back to his island home, unaware that two annoying guests, courtesy of Kuma, had sent up camp there. He wasn't sure which way the world was going to move now. But at the very least, it should be interesting to watch.

**AN: Mihawk often talks about `seeing what destiny holds for someone, so I went with that. Apologises for the gap between updates, particularly when I said I'd be updating more often. Blame laziness, being busy sightseeing in Washington (I've come across the pond for three weeks), and lack of internet/computer access.**

**Anyway, any feedback? I hope I've gotten Mihawk's character right...**

**Next up is Boa, and it'll be a long one with fanon backstory.**


	22. Hancock: Burning Down

**Burning down**

If you had told Hancock on that night years ago, when the mighty fire that freed her and all the other slaves lit the Red Line and surrounding seas for miles around, that she would return to the area one day, defending the World Government, she would have laughed in your face, if the terror driving her allowed her to. And yet here she stood, one of those twisted pirates who had sold themselves into the service of the very organisation they once fought against.

When she was sixteen, she lead her first attack against the World Government. Her target was the first marine ship to traverse the calm belt safely. The prototype, covered in seastone, was taken completely by suprise at the attack by another ship in these waters, and the crew were quickly overwhelmed, except for two. The leaders of this expedition, two vice admirals. The battle lasted long into the night, and as dawn broke, she was the only one standing on both sides.

She dragged her crew, literally, back to her ship, where she healed those that could be healed. She did not look back at the other ship, assuming that they were dead, or would die soon, if they weren't yet.

Three months later, after she had returned to Amazon Lily and taken her place as empress, three marine ships arrived. To her shock and horror, the two vice admirals she took for dead were on board, flanking a tall man who introduced himself as Admiral Aokiji. And then he had reached into his pocket and pulled out a den den mushi, and she spoke with the Elder Stars of the World Government.

She hadn't wanted to accept their offer. They said it was a grand honour, a privilege. She'd be the first one to become a Warlord with only one encounter with the government in history. Her sisters had started saying that it wasn't the first time, but she silenced them. They didn't need to know that.

She didn't know which one she was talking to. He was just a voice at the line. He could well, probably would be changing his voice somehow. But he knew what she looked like. He knew where she lived. And she knew how to make her obey.

"If you do not comply, we will activate the Buster Call."

She turned to Aokiji, who had pushed himself up into a sitting position and was staring at a golden den den mushi with obvious disgust.

She asked what a buster call was. He explained.

She felt sick.

And so, on a boat off the coast of her home island, Boa Hancock was sworn in as a servant of the world government, under threat of her country burning like that city she had fled from. And that was it for several long years.

Due to her treaty with the government, the marines did not often come to the island. She continued sailing around the sea, attacking merchant ships indiscriminately. She justified it by saying that she was just taking back what the world owed her for those years of slavery, although she didn't voice it, since she knew, in another layer of her mind, that she was actually just extending her suffering, and that somebody would call her out on it someday. So, instead, she told everyone it was because she was beautiful. The fact she saw this as a better reason, another, small, whispering part of her said, showed just how messed up she was, but this grew smaller over the years until she believed it herself, and the `mask` that she had put up, her cruel `facade` merged with the inner tortured young slave girl until she became a twisted, bizarre soul. One who you should pity, true, but also one who committed random acts of cruelty for reasons not even she believed. Cruel and pathetic, vulnerable and yet oh so dangerous.

Luffy's actions after arriving on the island were perhaps the most alien she had ever encountered. She still didn't know why he defended those girls, who he had just met, and had earlier been in a search party trying to capture him, with such vigour. She didn't know why he choose to cover her sister's back when she fell. She could understand protecting those close to you, those you cared for. She, after all, protected her people and her sisters, in her own weird way. But he didn't know those girls, and yet he was willing to sacrifice his chance of an easy ride back to whether he needed to get to. He was fighting her sisters, and yet he still protected their secret, without even knowing why it was important.

Luffy was kind. An indiscriminate kindness that she had never experienced before. She had known kindness, of course, with Rayleigh and others who had helped her. But Luffy was kind to everyone he encountered. Any anger he had only lasted as long as the situation he was angry about occurred, and he would accept all attempts at redemption with a smile and song, so it seemed to Hancock. These two strange people collided with each other, and she was swept away in a tide of emotions warped by age, abuse and disuse. She did not just love, but she obsessed, she turned every walking thought to him.

A first crush may seem small in most cases, but this was such a big change in her mind and personality that it must be taken account at least as much as the earlier events that led to her becoming a Warlord as to why she joined in the Marineford war, and how she saw it.

When she was first called upon to serve, to `do her duty` to protect the government she wished to see burn, she had refused, not because she thought she could get away with it, but because the situation was too similar to her youth, and earlier encounters with the government. She knew that refusing would likely mean the doom of her nation, but she wanted to put this man, this vice admiral, a rank she knew she was capable of fighting on par with, in his place. She wanted to feel a little bit of the power in the situation, even if she would have to eventually say yes. However, she could not disregard the summons forever, no matter what she wanted.

Then Luffy arrived, and suddenly the war had another purpose. It was no longer just to save her land, but to help Luffy do what he wished. But Luffy's wishes were fundamentally opposed to the World Government's wishes. In such a situation, most people would be torn between the two. But Hancock, who had been juggling the different aspects of her personality for years now, found the answer simple. Her first obligation made the Whitebeard crew the enemy. The second made the World Government the enemy. Therefore, to her mind, they were all enemies. And that was how she conducted herself in the battle. She attacked everyone, friend and foe, foe and friend.

When Ace died, one part of her was heartened by the fact the world government appeared to be winning, which meant her land was likely to be safe. The other part was horrified at the death of Luffy's brother.

This spilt woman, who had given up trying to make herself whole long ago, danced around the battle field, in a whirl of death and confusion that not even she knew the aim of. She attacked Smoker and the Kuma clones that rose out the battle field, and she attacked the pirates who tried to defeat them. She danced and attacked and attacked and attacked, and the whole time, her whole life, the things clashing within her mind fought against each other, like flints crashing and making fire, which took root, like the fire that freed her, like the fire that branded her, like the fire that threatened her, like the burning of the body of Ace and her body flew out of control, steered by a wildfire in her mind, which had been building and growing more chaotic for years.

One day, it would burn out. No one could tell you what may happen then.

**AN: If I had to compare Hancock with any character, it would be Arnold J. Rimmer from Red Dwarf. He too had a messed up childhood, which has left him a confused and rather pathetic character, although not quite on the same level of the `fucked up` scale as Hancock. I actually prefer Red Dwarf's way of dealing with this type of character though. They both have the same kind of excuse, but while Hancock's is used to make her more sympathic (and to be fair, it is a really good reason to be screwed up) and to justify her actions, Rimmer is more viewed as `an unfortunate smeghead...but still a smeghead`. Maybe that's wrong, but it does feel better to point out that they are still responsible for their actions, even with their pasts.**

**Boa has serious issues. **

**As a note, this is the longest one yet, but it was also one of the easiest to write. Fun fun fun.**

**Next up, I think maybe Coby, and how he is dealing with accidently awakening haki.**


	23. Coby: Hearing Silence

**Hearing silence.**

What exactly is `haki`?

Coby wasn't sure. He didn't think anyone actually knew what `haki` is, with the possible exception of Dr. Vegapunk. People called it `ambition`. People called it `power`. But these were just abstract concepts. They just used them to try to cover up their complete ignorance of what it actually was.

It seemed to be able to do anything. Luffy knocking out hundreds of people with a shout? Haki. First division commander Marco harming a man made of lava with a claw? Haki. Coby hearing the screams and shouts, the last whispered thoughts of so many people, so many voices? Haki. It was a communications centre, a weapon of mass destruction, a surgical tool, an overwrite of nature all at once. Maybe what they called `haki` was actually a whole series of different abilities that no one had separated yet.

Coby didn't like his power. He couldn't control it yet, and no one could tell him how to control it, since the ones who could use it tended to be the higher ups, and they had more important things to do than listen to him, like the reconstruction work after the war. He could hear everyone. It was like a constant background noise in his head. If he focused really hard on someone, he could, sometimes, he thought, hear them above the rest, and hear their thoughts. Nothing deep, but things you just do, like, put one foot in front of the other. It seemed he was predicting others movements before they made them. He sort of saw how it could be useful, but...

But there was too much. He had no filter yet, no focus. The noise, the chatter, it filled his head and blocked out his own thoughts.

Maybe however, it was better that than having no voices at all. Or having voices cut short while you stood there. Having the voices of hundreds of marines and pirates disappear is horrible. It is like standing there, with a hundred men in your arms, all of them dying. You can do nothing to help them. Do nothing to ease the pain. All you can do is stand there and hear them. And then hear silence where a heartbeat used to be.

Helmeppo was charging around the hospital, asking how to activate haki in himself. Coby would gladly hand his over. But he couldn't, so he pulled his covers over his head and sat there. And he wished that hearing silence would stop being so terrible.


	24. Shanks: Monsters

**Monsters**

When Shanks' first heard the saying `He who fights monsters must be careful not to become one himself`, he was very drunk, causing him to mishear it to create a confusing new saying which he fixed, so he spent several years giving out wise advice like `He who fights abysses instead of looking into them is a fucking moron who attacks random pieces of geography`, until Benn took him aside and quietly explained the actual saying.

Which made a lot more sense, since the problems surrounding the morality in battle were deep and complex; to smash the guy's head in or not to smash the guy's head in? In favour of the first one, he probably was trying to do it to you, but in favour of the second one, smashing people's heads in was generally a cruel and brutal action, one which only a monster would perform. Which probably was where the saying came from.

Now, it was all very well saying `I'd let the guy live` when drinking with your mates, but in battle, there is a very real chance that if you don't do it to him then he will do it to you. This, understandably, makes a chap a bit paranoid, and so you end up smashing the other guy's head in because he may smash your head in. And then you start thinking ahead and smashing his mate's head in as well, in case he comes for revenge. And then you start worrying about who may by preparing to bash your head in, and before you know it, you're explaining why you murdered a tennis player after you freak out at his over arm throw. Admittedly this was a slippery slope argument, but unfortunately disappointingly few people come properly equipped to climb slippery slopes and just go straight to the bottom.

A good example of this was the Marineford war. When Shanks set off from the new world, he didn't actually know who was winning the battle at the time. All he knew that whoever it was, there was a good chance they had slalomed down the slope at high speed. And whoever this was, the results would probably not be good at all. If Whitebeard won, the likely outcome would be the lower ranks of the marines, who, for the most part, weren't corrupt psychopaths and did a good job patrolling the seas to protect people from people who were, while people like Akainu would likely survive. An Akainu running around unchecked at all on a sea that's lost its law enforcement anyway would be a bad situation, Shanks thought.

Quite aside from the mass loss of civilian life, he'd probably burn down all the bars. Or even worse, the breweries! He truly was an evil man.

As they came closer and closer to the battlefield, they were able to incept communications and discover what was going on, which consisted of Ace and Whitebeard both dying. This was not a situation Shanks had counted on, and the resultant power increase for Blackbeard worried him even more. He became more and more eager to press on ahead, to get there as soon as possible.

When they arrived, he had thrown himself onto the ice and preformed his fastest `soru` towards the battlefield, accompanied by Benn and Lucky. In the chaos, their arrival went unnoticed to most, up until that one man had shown that he was still clinging to the moral high ground, and Akainu had attacked, and Shanks stepped forward, into the eyes of the world.

He wasn't going to let either side become monsters. And if they did, then he'd beat it out of them. Carefully. Wouldn't want to become a monster yourself now, would you?

**This was a weird one to write. I hope it turned out okay. Sorry for the gap, I've been lazy. But still...I'm in uni! Wooot!**

**So yeah. Feed back wanted, as per usual. Was it good? Bad? Incomprehensible? In character? Pretentious? Let me know.**


	25. Ivankov: Madness

**Madness**

If he (a word used here to describe his usual state, rather than an accurate representation of the reality of the man) was honest with himself, Emporio Ivankov would say that following Monkey D. Luffy is an absolutely mad thing to do. Which, by extension, means that Ivankov was going mad himself. Admittedly, by most people's standard of `mad`, being a giant cross-dresser who weaponises winks, changing people's gender whether they wish him too or not, and, despite having complete control of the human body from his devil fruit, choosing to look like, well, Emporio Ivankov, he already is mad, but he ignores this.

The madness that came from following Luffy on the other hand, well, even he could see this was problematic. Luffy was the kind of man who would willingly attempt to smash his way through an opponent who could melt his body. When Ivankov first saw him, lying there not so much as half dead as dead but hasn't admitted it yet, he regarded the boy as mad.

So why was it, exactly, that soon after this meeting, he found himself attempting the exact same feat? It was Luffy's madness. It was contagious. He had never met Ace, and his one brief encounter with Whitebeard had almost left him dead, but he still wanted to save the guy!

Looking around, he saw the madness was spreading. Buggy was now actually acting like he was going to do something, which may have been helped by the stupidity of the ones following him. Mr 3 snuck up onto the execution platform right under Sengoku's nose for the sake of Mr 2. Mr 2 had stayed behind at Impel Down to let them escape. Heck, even Crocodile was in on it, attacking Admiral Akainu, despite the fact that the man had just killed another logia user and it was highly likely that lava would melt sand. (Unknown to him, Hancock was also being crazy because of Luffy's presence, attacking marines despite the risk to her people, but her normal attitude was so strange and violent you couldn't tell if she was going crazy or just enjoyed kicking people).

Yep. If that boy reached out a rubber hand to you, be prepared to do stuff you normally would have regarded as bizarre. If you ally yourself in anyway with Monkey D. Luffy, he would worm his way into your mind, smash your logical thought processes and replace them with the kind of wide eyed determinism that went out of fashion with the end of the silver age of superhero comics.

This realisation, as stated above, is dependent on him being honest with himself. However, that is simply not possible in the presence of Monkey D. Luffy, because you have gone too mad to notice it. And you loved every damn minute.

**AN: I'm running out of people to do! :O Anyway, here is Ivankov's. I wanted to do a first person one, but I couldn't do a particularly good one...so yeah.**

**Anyway...as usual, comments and critique appricated.**


	26. Oars Jr: Gonna do right

**Gonna do right**

Gonna rescue Ace. That's what Pops said when he came up to me. Oars, he says, come and help us fight. Fight for Ace.

Why, what can ya do when you get asked somit like that? Ace is my bro. Gotta rescue your bro right? Gotta do right. Yeah. I'm gonna do right, I said. Oars, ya gonna do right. So I gets my hat on and I gets my sword and I say to my crew I say `Hey, we're gonna rescue Ace!`, and they all cheer and say `Yeah, gonna rescue Ace!` And we all go out and get ready to do right.

Now, I ain't dumb. I've read stories and stuff, and I know the good guys win. The ones doing right win. Doing right makes you better at clobbering people doing wrong. Why Kaidou will never be able to stand up ta Pops. Pops does right, and Kaidou does wrong, and Kaidou gets clobbered. Simple. Way of the world.

So I'm guessing this ain't gonna be the end. I'm gonna get up and rescue Ace soon. I've gotten up once after those guys knocked me out. Just need ta be more like the good guys in my books. Need more...whatchamagica...resolve. Need ta get up and smash them navy boys and show that they ain't doing right and stuff. Just need ta get up...

Come on, come on, just need ta move my arms...just need ta move my head...just need ta move my eyes...

I can't move my eyes...I can't see much, though I can hear the pops is out there fighting...and Ace! Ace is out! Good. We did right. We won.

And, unnoticed in the battle, as all stood in shock as firefist Ace fell to Admiral Akianu, Little Oars Jr quietly passed on, still thinking he'd done right.

**AN: ODA! YOU BETTER JOSS THIS ONE! OARS IS TOO AWESOME TO DIE!**


	27. Shiki: Victory

**Victory!**

Shiki took another puff on his cigar as he sat there, reading the newspaper a bandaged Doctor Indigo had brought to him, and laughed.

It was filled with tales on destruction, and bravery. The front page of it boasted of an exclusive interview with Admiral Kizaru (Who Shiki still thought of as that space case Borsalino, who would have died while fighting Shiki if it weren't for the timely intervention of Garp. It seems that being able to levitate water around devil fruit users is an unfair advantage.) on his role in the whole affair, which, everyone was agreed, was extremely bloody and nasty and should never happen again. Ever.

Shiki laughed at this. He laughed because the world was ignorant of the fact that he would have caused at least as bad a war, if not worse, if it hadn't been for that brat Monkey D. Luffy. The same brat revialed in the paper in front of him as `son of Dragon, the insane revolutionary!`, as if blood ties meant that much as to the child's chosen career path. Dragon was the son of Garp, hero of the marines, after all.

Shiki wondered if Monkey D. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO TOUCH EAST BLUE" Luffy had realised that he himself had just been at the centre of a massive incident that probably made it easier for anyone to cause chaos on any of the seas in the world. Probably not, but Shiki found it hilarious.

But that wasn't all the newspaper said on the strawhat. At the end of the piece, after Whitebeard had kicked the bucket (An excellent point, which Shiki made a mental note to laugh at later, once he had healed the most recent blow to his pride), and Red Haired Shanks had arrived, that there was a paragraph about how Admiral Kizaru, bravely ignoring the threat presented by Shanks' first mate, leapt into action, and was presumed to have sunk the submarine that carried the rubber man away from the battle. Hah! Missing, presumed dead! Shiki grinned again. A perfect end to that brat, he thought.

He flicked back a page, and allowed himself to wallow in the picture of Whitebeard's body, still standing tall. That old git had ruled the seas too long. Why, there were some islands under his control that Shiki would have loved to have in Strong World; rare animals, usefully minerals, vast amounts of potential slave labour...even before the death of Roger, Whitebeard was still a hateful foe to Shiki. Maybe it was the opposite nature of their devil fruits, maybe Earth and Sky just hate each other, but whatever reason, Shiki couldn't stand the guy. And it wasn't just because Whitebeard could fight on par with Roger, or his fleet was far too large for Shiki to feasibly take him on, but Shiki just hated the guy. And so it was so goddamn awesome when he died.

Other things in the report made him laugh as well. Impel Down smashed to bits. Serves them right for keeping him in there. Marine's forces severally stretched across the world? Fantastic. The nice thing about two of your enemies fighting it out, and one scoring a pyrrhic victory over the other, is that both sides effectively lose. And when they are both your enemies, that means you win.

Shiki tilted his head back, pushing the steering wheel in his skull into the cushions, and shouted to Indigo.

"Hey, while you're up, fetch some booze! The good stuff, for special occasions!"

The clown scientist looked back at him, puzzled.  
"What for?" he asked.

Shiki gave a smirk.

"Victory!"


	28. Benn: Bluffing

**Bluffing.**

Benn Beckman, as a member of Shank's crew, spent large amounts of time drunk. He was one of those sober drunks, where the only clue you had to his overall pissedness was a slight drawl that wasn't there before. This meant that, unlike his captain, who was generally ending up dancing on the first table he found (if he couldn't find one, he had been known to use his prodigious blade skill to flatten trees, boulders, and in one memorable case, the mast of a marine ship to create a flat, table like space to strut his drunken stuff on), he was generally found with the quieter members of the crew, solving the world's problems like only men who have just quaffed five to ten mugs of beer apiece can. And when that got boring, they started gambling. They'd clear the captain of the table, preferably into the arms of some lovely young lady, although Lucky generally stood in if one was unavailable, set themselves up with a hand of cards apiece, and proceeded to severely redistribute the wealth among themselves by the time honoured means of poker.

The thing about poker is that a large chunk of it is getting the other guys to give up. Everyone had their own techniques for doing it. Greg, a huge, hulking crew member who stayed coherent by the fact that his body was so huge, by the time the alcohol had hit the bloodstream, it was too tired to do anything else simply looked like he was away with the fairies at all times, then snapped back occasionally, either if he had a good hand or he wanted to think you had a good hand. His constant companion May, a small waif of a girl they picked up after she had pick pocketed one of the crew then thrown him across the bar when he attempted to retaliate kept a stony face, fitting with her pebble pebble fruit powers. Colin, an apprentice to Yasopp as a sharpshooter for the crew, preferred to keep a psychotic grin on his face at all times, which was deeply unnerving since, as a shark fish man, he had more than one row of teeth in his mouth. Benn himself simply ordered a round of drinks for everyone, a display of confidence that said `I'm going to get my money back this round if you like it or not`. Benn knew about bluffing when your hand was crap.

He had never actually tried bluffing with a poor hand in front of the entirety of the World Government's forces however. Sure, they were worn out from fighting Whitebeard, but they still heavily out numbered the Red Hair pirates, and the heavy hitters, Garp, Sengoku, the admirals were still there and could make any fight ridiculously costly to their crew. Sure his haki could harm Kizaru, but when a guy can move behind you at the same speed as the light from where he was standing did, a mere bullet wasn't really enough to stop him.

Then there was the fact they had been fighting another emperor just before they came here to Marineford, and even as a skirmish, that takes its toll on you. The crew was actually fairly exhausted already, it's just compared to the weary fighters here they were doped up on enough caffeine to cause even Greg poisoning.

Then there was the Blackbeard pirates, standing there on the execution platform. Between them they probably equalled or matched most New World pirate crews, and if they were only a bit bigger they'd easily be on the level of one of the four emperor's crews. If the marines insisted on fighting, then Blackbeard would likely descend upon the battle field, perhaps even aiming to remove the head of another ruler of the new world. If both of these factions, plus the assembled warlords of the sea, insisted on extending the battle, the Red Hair pirates would be lucky to escape with only half of the low members of the crew dead.

So when Sengoku declared the war to be over, Benn shuffled his useless hand back into the deck, took his earnings and brought everyone a round of drinks. It was the first time he had gambled on the life of his crewmates. It was the first time he had gambled on the fate of the world.

He swore that he was going to quit gambling. Nasty, dangerous habit.

**AN: Let's face it. Shanks' crew could have easily just been the catalyst for the second part of the battle. Heaven knows what would have happened then.**

**With a note to the crew members I made up, the first two are just there because I wanted a classic `Big man, small girl`, with the big man being a dreamer, what you might call a wind type, and the girl being a rock solid earth type, hence the pebble pebble fruit. I see it all too often where the characters match their element (Big lumbering earth users, tiny agile wind users), and I wanted to subvert it, even as a throw away line. Why was Colin a shark man? Why not. Why not I say!**


	29. Helmeppo 2: Jealousy

**Jealousy.**

Helmeppo shifted in the uncomfortable hospital chair and sulked. A bit of respect. A bit of payoff. That's all Helmeppo was asking for, you know? A reward for the shit that he went through in the war. He had been shot at, narrowly dodged at least six different lasers, nearly got chopped in two when the Whitebeard pirates commander Vista had accidentally missed with one of his crazy long range slashes, almost been turned to stone and had to deal with a rain of lava on his position fired by an admiral, the same admiral who later decided to melt Coby and promoted Helmeppo to attempt to run at him and behead him.

Okay, so running at Akainu with a knife probably wouldn't have done anything over than getting him melted as well, but still. It was just one of a long list of incidents which Helmeppo had suffered over the war. To make matters worse, for a large part of it, he had been carrying Coby on his back after the other marine was knocked out by Strawhat. And yet it was Coby who unlocked latent haki abilities, not him. What a swizz.

He wasn't looking for much, you know? Just a bit of haki. A tiny bit. Not king's haki, or even armament haki, but observation haki. The most basic kind. Was that too much to ask? Was Coby that far ahead of him?

In the bed next to him, Coby shifted in his sleep and cried out softly as his haki continued to torment him. Two floors below, the doctors pulled the sheet over the head of a marine who didn't make it. Helmeppo pulled the blankets closer to his friend's chest, patting his shoulder until the other man fell back into slumber, and the blond's scowl deepened.

At the very least, if he had unlocked this power, and not Coby?

At least his friend wouldn't have to go through all the shit he was going through.

Helmeppo sighed, and settled as best he could into the hard chair, getting ready for another long night of worry.

**A/N: So real life and uni got in my way for a while. I'm not promising regular updates, that would be silly if I can't keep to them, but have this one for now, and hopefully I'll be able to write more soon.**

**Additionally, it was only AFTER I had written this and was just about to post this up when I realised that I've already done Helmeppo.**

**Eh. I like this one better anyway. **


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